When Tooks and Bagginses Meet
by Unhobbity Hobbit
Summary: Told from the point of view of Merry, Bilbo meets Pippin for the first time (as far as Pippin is concerned)
1. First thoughts

A/N: I'm having a go at a different type of story here, that being a little happier.  
  
Some background info: Bilbo has been very busy the past few years and has not had time to visit the Tooks. The last time he saw Pippin, Pippin was just a babe and he doesn't remember Bilbo one jot. This is my interpretation of their first meeting (first as far as Pippin is concerned).  
  
'Merry!' my aunt called to me from the kitchen. I rushed in there, as I knew she was busy cooking, trying to get the roast dinner perfected before uncle Bilbo arrived. 'Go get your cousin will you? He's around somewhere.' Pippin was often around somewhere. Once he became detached from his mother he'd wander anywhere. You could set him down facing in any direction, give him a push and he'd carry on walking until he ran out of energy, like a clockwork toy.  
  
I walked out of the steamy kitchen and called Pip's name, but Pippin didn't always want to be found. He'd not always hide but he'd definitely not make any effort to reply. It looked like he was in one of these moods again.  
  
I searched high and low in the hole. In my room, his room, the living room, my aunt and uncle's room and even up the chimney. He'd once escaped for half an hour up there, which may not seem long to you and I, but to a three year old, that certainly takes a lot of patience.  
  
I finally found him outside in the garden, throwing stones at a tree. Thrush, a new furry addition to the Took household was curled at his feet.  
  
'Come on now Pip.' I said, 'What's the matter?' Pip always threw stones at a tree when he was annoyed, when he'd first started throwing he'd used the people around him as targets but he realised that he would quickly become very unpopular and now used trees.  
  
'I want to go out.' He said in his high pitched childish voice. He was used to having freedom but today he had to stay home to meet Bilbo, it would be the first time they'd met each other, other than when Pippin was a small baby. It should be a happy time but when Pippin was in one of his moods not much would cheer him up, he was so stubborn!  
  
'You know you can't go out,' I said to him, 'So come inside and get cleaned up.'  
  
'Don't want to get cleaned up. I want to go for a walk!'  
  
'We can go with Bilbo once we've had dinner. Now stop being so stubborn and get inside!' Pippin giggled his sweet little giggle and looked up at me.  
  
'You sound like daddy.' He said smiling cheekily up at me.  
  
'Yes,' I said, 'And you know what your father does when you don't listen to him.' Pippin threw another stone at the tree and then angled his head to look up at me with a look that said "you wouldn't dare" and I raised my eyebrow to say, "you want to find out?"  
  
'I want to see Frodo.' Said Pippin, returning to his throwing and changing the course of the conversation.  
  
'You know Frodo's ill.' I said to him.  
  
'Well if he's ill, then why can Bilbo come here when he should be looking after Frodo! He can't look after Frodo and come and see me at the same time.'  
  
'So is this why you don't want to see Bilbo?' Pippin was becoming quite the little thrower, he'd have a strong arm when he grew up.  
  
'Well, well, maybe.' Said Pippin a little lost for words for once. 'Not just that though,' he admitted, 'he's faced dragons and trolls and things and he's been burnt all over and he's got scars everywhere and his teeth are rotting and, and he spits when he talks.'  
  
"Hold up there Pip, where did you get all this from?' I asked. He got as far as 'Fat-' before he clamped his hand over his mouth and wouldn't say anything more. He'd already said too much though and he knew it.  
  
'How many times have I told you not to believe everything you hear? Especially not from Fatty. He's just winding you up.'  
  
'When was the last time you saw him?'  
  
'A month ago, at most.'  
  
'He might've changed since then.'  
  
'Look here Pippin, he looks after Frodo and Frodo loves him so he can't be all that bad can he? Give him a chance, even if he is all scarred and burnt black by dragon fire.'  
  
'But he's not looking after Frodo, Frodo's ill.'  
  
'Frodo's 26 Pip, he's perfectly able to look after himself, even if he is ill. And anyway, he's getting better.'  
  
Pippin glanced at me, to make sure my face was straight, to see that I was telling the truth. He may only have been four, but his ability to see through my lies was quite unnerving.  
  
'Alright then.' he said after a moment's thought. And he took my hand and I led him into the hole.  
  
TBC 


	2. Getting to know Bilbo

A/N: Right, This chapter is ridiculously long and don't expect anything like this length in the future because you won't get it. Your reviews mean a lot to me by the way, even if you say nothing in them.  
  
Later that morning when Pip and I were all cleaned up and in our best clothes, aunt Eglantine arranged us all in the hallway to greet Uncle Bilbo as he came in through the door. Pippin completely ignored his place and came over to hide behind my legs from the monstrosity that was bound to come through the front door. If I've told him once, I've told him a thousand times, that Fatty may be ten years older than Pip but he has no right to tell him such tall tales.  
  
There was a knock at the door and Pippin gripped my leg tighter. Uncle Paladin opened the door and Bilbo stepped inside. 'Welcome Bilbo! Good to see you.' Said my uncle. Bilbo looked around and greeted us all. Whenever he came near us, Pippin shrank away. I could tell he wasn't looking any higher than Bilbo's kneecaps and he didn't dare to.  
  
'So,' said Bilbo once he had finished meeting and greeting, 'Where is the little terror?'  
  
'I'm not a terror.' Squeaked a small voice uncertainly from behind me.  
  
'Did I just hear a mouse squeaking?' said Bilbo, 'Eglantine, you should really get that problem sorted out.' Everyone but Pip and I laughed at Bilbo's teasing, if Bilbo was trying to wind up Pip he was certainly going the right way about it.  
  
'There are no mice here!' said Pip indignantly.  
  
'Oh,' said Bilbo, 'There it is again!'  
  
Pippin stepped out from behind me and strode towards Bilbo in the exact same manner as his father took when talking to troublemakers.  
  
'Now listen here laddie!' Pippin shouted up at Bilbo. It seemed that he had memorised the exact words his father used. 'Don't you go making fun of my voice! And my home is as fine a home as any so don't you say anything different!' His little face was terribly fierce but when Bilbo looked down at him he gave a little frightened squeak and hid behind me jabbering, 'S- sorry Mr. B-Bilbo sir.'  
  
'Now now, my young Took, it is I that should apologise. You're right, you're home is just as fine, if not finer, than most holes this side of the three farthing stone.' Pippin didn't know what to say, as it wasn't often his rants got him anything more than a frown, or a pat on the head from someone who saw the resemblance between him and his father.  
  
He crept around my leg but remained touching me and reached up to hold my hand. We turned towards one of the few dining rooms in the Smial. Pippin was between his mother and I but straying towards his mother's side because Bilbo was on my other side. Bilbo said nothing of Pip's unusual behaviour. Even though he must've known that Pippin wasn't his normal self. This was because I'd often gone to visit him in Hobbiton after staying with the Tooks. And I had usually been scratched all over by brambles following Pippin when he had run through them and out the other side in his adventurous Tookish kind of way.  
  
At dinner Pippin tried to sit as far away from Bilbo as possible but only succeeded in getting two places away from him. With all of Pippin's immediate family, the table was quite full and other members of the Took clan kept Bilbo in conversation, which was fine with Pippin.  
  
The conversation topic turned towards Frodo while halfway through pudding (a delicious summer pudding). Pippin overcame his fear of Bilbo to voice his concerns. He seemed to be doubting Fatty's words anyway having seen Bilbo in person and listened to the conversations he was having with the others.  
  
'Shouldn't you be with Frodo now?' said Pip, looking quite angrily at Bilbo like he didn't forgive him for leaving Frodo alone at home while he had a temperature. Bilbo jumped at the chance to say something to Pippin.  
  
'I tried to stay behind but Frodo would not hear of it! "Bilbo!" he says, "You will not miss meeting Pippin just because I got myself a temperature!" And with that he thrust my bags into my hand, pushed me out the door and slammed it hard behind me! Of course, I'm sure the Gamgees will notice if anything happens and no doubt take care of it.' Pippin looked satisfied with the answer and nodded his head in approval, something else he'd picked up from his father. I just hoped that he wouldn't pick up his father's temper. Bilbo continued having gained Pippin's approval, 'Frodo says that if he's well enough my this afternoon he'll pay a little visit of his own.'  
  
Pippin positively jumped out of his seat in excitement. He loved Frodo and the amount of time spent away from him made the time when Frodo was there all the more special. Eglantine rolled her eyes and silently scolded Bilbo, Pippin could be a real handful when excited. Not that he wasn't a handful when he wasn't excited. He jumped down from his chair, which provoked a warning 'Pippin.' From his mother. Pippin climbed back up onto his chair and said in a well-rehearsed voice, 'Please may I leave the table?' and he earnt the customary 'yes you may.'  
  
Once more he leapt from his chair and pulled on my sleeve until I had finished my pudding (little Pippin had left some of his, but no doubt it would be finished off by someone else). 'Pippin,' his mother called after him, 'No climbing or anything dangerous, or we'll send Frodo right back to Hobbiton when he gets here!' Pippin replied earnestly 'Yes mummy!' before dragging me out of the door.  
  
He stopped me as I shut the door behind us and made me leave a small gap. Then he sat down nest to the door and listened.  
  
The cheeky rascal! But it was a terribly good idea. As if he were waiting for us to get settled just outside the door, Bilbo struck up a conversation about Pippin.  
  
'He seems a nice enough lad, very loyal.'  
  
'I don't know what's got into him. We usually can't stop his mouth from going ten to the dozen!' said Eglantine.  
  
'Perhaps he's just shy.' Reasoned Bilbo.  
  
'Shy?' said one of his sisters, they all sounded so alike, 'Ha! Just try living with him, then you can judge how shy he is!' it was definitely Pervinca, no one else disliked Pippin so.  
  
'Oh just because you don't like frogs!' said another one of Pip's sisters. I was suddenly aware then Pippin was moving, I grabbed his arm and looked at him questioningly and he folded his legs in the manner of someone who really needs the toilet. I mouthed 'go, go!' at him and he went. I returned to the conversation.  
  
'Pimpernel, you know I can't help it! And he just keeps doing it over and over again!'  
  
'Leave off, he's only four, just be glad he's not filling your bed with worms.'  
  
'Oh don't, you know how much I hate worms.'  
  
'Pervinca,' said a voice I knew to belong to Pearl, Pip's oldest sister. 'You hate practically every living creature under the sun.'  
  
'But frogs most of all!' I smiled that she didn't even try to disprove Pearls claim.  
  
'You must admit, it isn't half-funny when you rush through the house with nothing but your nighty on screaming like there was a axe murderer in your room.'  
  
'Now now, girls, this is neither the time nor the place for an argument.' Said a voice I knew well to be Paladin's.  
  
The conversation abated for a while and all I could hear were the scrapings of cutlery on plates.  
  
'He likes Merry doesn't he?' said Bilbo over the clacking of plates.  
  
'They're like brothers, honestly, sometimes I forget that Merry doesn't live here!' said Pippin's mother 'You should see him when Frodo visits, if there was ever a hysteria to rival Merry's arrival, then it's Frodo's.' I heard a chuckle and, strangely enough, the sound of wooden wheels on the old oak floorboards. It took me a while to realise that they were coming from behind me and not from the room and I turned to find Pippin setting up his toy bricks. The rolling sound had come from the trolley he kept them in. Pippin then began to set out the bricks while I looked at him questioningly. He only tapped his nose so I turned back to the door.  
  
I heard the scraping of chairs across the floor and suddenly realised why Pippin was playing with his bricks and I quickly went to join him. Just in time too.  
  
Uncle Paladin emerged from the room only seconds after I had scurried away. He smiled at me, then beamed proudly down upon his son who was concentrating hard on constructing quite a complicated tower. But Pippin glanced up under his father's gaze and let a small smile slip. Next came Pippin's sisters, whom he ignored with great ease. Then aunt Eglantine came into the corridor.  
  
'Oh you two! What have I said about playing in the middle of the hall! Everyone shall trip over you!'  
  
'Nonsense Ann! It's the perfect place to build a tower. You can see nearly the whole smial from here.' That statement was true enough, we were at a small T-junction where the two main corridors running right through the smial met. Aunt Eglantine smiled at Bilbo's insistence on calling her Ann and decided to let us continue playing there but,  
  
'Only if Bilbo stays with you.' Honestly, what did she expect us to do?  
  
'That's quite a tower you've got there.' Said Bilbo, trying to start up a conversation. Of course, had he known Pippin as well as anyone else in this smial, then he would know that it was pointless to try and talk to Pippin while Pippin was concentrating on something else. Once Pippin started something he was so determined to finish it that he accepted no distractions.  
  
'Is that a window there?' said Bilbo, pointing to an opening about three bricks off the ground. Perhaps Bilbo did know what he was doing because Pippin loved to explain what he was doing to lesser-knowing people.  
  
'No.' said Pippin as though it was obvious, 'That's the door.'  
  
'Isn't it a bit high off the ground to be a door?' Bilbo pointed out.  
  
'No.' said Pippin in the same away as he said it before, 'If it was on the ground then the enemy could just run straight in!' Bilbo looked a little taken aback by Pippin's thoughtfulness and reasoning.  
  
'Yes,' I said, 'There's a reason behind everything my Pip does.' Pippin beamed. 'Except when he runs around screaming like a lunatic.' The beaming stopped and he looked up at me, frowning slightly.  
  
'You know that's because I'm bored.' I just raised my eyebrow at him.  
  
'I've heard that you like it when Frodo visits.' Said Bilbo, intent on getting the conversation back where he knew what we were talking about. Pippin hmmed in agreement while he eyed his tower critically. Bilbo nodded.  
  
'You don't see him too often do you Pip?' I said. I really wanted Pippin to get to know and like Bilbo. Pippin was still eyeing his tower. I knew what was coming next. Pippin stuck his hand right through the tower and it came tumbling to the ground with many a bang. Bilbo jumped but decided not to say anything about Pip's strange behaviour.  
  
That's what Pippin was like. He could spend an hour building something out of bricks, or carefully drawing a picture on his slate and then get rid of it without a second thought. He never became very attached to physical things, but his bonds with the people around him were fierce and hard to break.  
  
Bilbo wasn't sure what he could talk about next. Pippin was fiddling with one of his bricks and he sighed audibly. For once in my life I prayed that he wouldn't get bored. I'd usually encourage Pippin in his boredom because he'd think of the most ridiculous things to keep himself occupied. But I was anxious that Bilbo should get to know and like Pippin and that Pippin should do the same. If Pippin got bored now, who knows what he would do?  
  
As though in answer to my prayers, the sound of soft padding feet came down the corridor. Pippin put the brick down and waited expectantly on all fours. Yet another thing unique to Pippin was his relationship with that new addition to the Took family.  
  
A shiny black snout poked around the wooden panelled wall and two brown eyes locked onto Pippin's. The puppy slowly walked towards Pippin and they touched noses. Pippin was shaking with suppressed laughter, like one who shares a joke with another that nobody else knows about.  
  
'Thrush!' yelled Pippin as he leaped onto the young dog, which was around the same size as him. The two scrambled around on the floor, growling, shouting, yelping and making any other noise possible. Bilbo looked terrified and tried to prise the two apart, but no matter what he did the two kept writhing and squirming on the floor.  
  
I watched calmly, knowing the two would right themselves shortly. And they did. Thrush was standing on Pippin's chest, nearly suffocating Pippin as his tongue kept slopping all over Pip's face. Pippin was trying to say something but the tongue kept catching the words before they came into the world. Bilbo pulled the straining pup's head away from Pippin's face and in his most commanding voice Pippin yelled,  
  
'Get off!' Thrush's tail whipped between his legs and he sheepishly crawled off Pippin and let him sit up. Pippin did so, wiping his face on his sleeves and Thrush took up his spot right next to Pippin.  
  
'Thrush is an odd name for a dog, how did he come by it?' asked Bilbo, it was a fair question, and about one of Pippin's favourite subjects.  
  
'Well, to be truthful,' What a good start, he can make up the worst fibs about Thrush's name. Now all he had to do was actually be truthful. 'I had just learnt the word and I insisted on calling him that because I liked the word. And it annoyed Pervinca.' I was impressed, Bilbo was doing something right to get Pippin to tell the truth so.  
  
'Bilbo!' came the faint voice of Uncle Paladin down the corridor.  
  
'Oops, must be off, I promised to have a chat with your father about Otho's antics. Clear your bricks up for me will you? Lest your mother will have my hide!' Pippin nodded and began putting his bricks back as Bilbo rose and walked away. Thrush became excited at Pippin's movement and began leaping around but Pippin and I ignored him.  
  
'What did you hear?' Pippin asked me. I hmmed in confusion. 'Through the door, what did they talk about?'  
  
'Oh nothing much, you being such a smart, intelligent young lad and me being a strong, witty and handsome figure of a hobbit.' Pippin eyed me with great disbelief. 'Something along those lines anyway,' I said with a smile.  
  
'Anything else?'  
  
'You know that frog you're keeping in you chest of drawers?' Pippin nodded, 'I think it's time to let it back into the pond.'  
  
'But then what will I put in Pervinca's bed?'  
  
'I think there's a good source of worms in the far corner of the garden.' Pippin and I, who were transporting the bricks back to the playroom, looked at each other and a beam of pure mischievous evil passed between us. 


	3. Shadows of the future

A/N: Much shorter than the last chapter, but hey.  
  
Arwen Baggins: I was contemplating whether or not Frodo would be there, but if you really want him there then of course he shall appear! It may take a while though.  
  
Hai: Pippin may not think things through while on an adventure, but when it comes to trouble making, he really knows what he's doing ;).  
  
Pippin had had his nap and it was now late afternoon. He was pestering me about the walk I had promised so we went to look for Bilbo. We found him flustering around one of the many living rooms of the smial, quite plainly looking for something. We decided to help him.  
  
'What are you looking for Bilbo?' I asked. He looked up at me, very distracted.  
  
'Oh, nothing, nothing, just a trinket.'  
  
'Well, can we help?'  
  
'No need, no need, I'll find it about here somewhere.' Pippin didn't care what Bilbo said, he'd help him find whatever it was even if his father forbade him. He crawled into all the spaces that Bilbo couldn't reach into and knew places that no adult would think of looking in so it was no surprise when Pippin was the one who emerged gazing at something golden in his little hands.  
  
I sat down across the room, I was quite plainly no longer needed in the search so I took my rest where I could. Pippin approached Bilbo where he was still searching around the fireplace. He paused a little, still staring at the object in his hands. He shook himself, as if coming out of some very deep thoughts and pulled on Bilbo's shirt. Bilbo whipped round and stared fiercely at Pippin, who shook under the intense gaze and winced slightly like he did before he was told off for something. I didn't blame him, Bilbo seemed very uptight, like he could yell at any moment.  
  
Pippin held out his hand with the golden something in it and said in a small voice, which was barely a whisper,  
  
'Is this what you were looking for?' Bilbo looked from the object, which I now saw to be a ring, to Pippin's face with an animosity that he reserved for only his worst enemies. Little Pippin quailed beneath him. I involuntarily grew tense and ready to jump Pippin's aid if anything should persuade Bilbo to harm him.  
  
'Yes!' Said Bilbo harshly, 'Give it to me! Now!' Pippin threw the ring into Bilbo's waiting hands like it had burnt him and he stepped backwards and bumped into the arm of a chair. He looked like a cornered animal with no hope of escape. His arms were over his head in a protective fashion and he was shaking like a leaf.  
  
'S-sorry B-b-bilbo.' He stuttered. Bilbo, for his part, now looked horrified at what he had done. The ring had been tucked away somewhere I noted, as he picked Pippin up tenderly and sat him down on the armchair. Bilbo kneeled in front of Pippin and brought Pippin's hands to his head.  
  
'Peregrin. I am truly, truly sorry for being so harsh and am thankful beyond measure for your finding it. I have just grown rather attached to this ring. It is precious to me.' And he began to drift off into his own thoughts.  
  
Pippin was shocked at Bilbo's sudden change and seemingly confused about something.  
  
'Precious?' he asked when curiosity finally got the better of him.  
  
'Yes, precious.' Pippin frowned, he was thinking hard about something.  
  
'What does precious mean?' Bilbo smiled. At last, something to chase away the darkness that seemed to have covered the room.  
  
'It means that it has great value.' Pippin nodded and the frown vanished.  
  
'Precious, precious, precious, precious.' Pippin mumbled to himself over and over to try and remember the word. The word memorised and all wrongs silently forgiven, Pippin leaped off the armchair, onto Bilbo and caught him in a hug that looked bigger than any Pippin could have managed.  
  
'Can we go for a walk?' said Pippin when he finally broke the embrace.  
  
'Yes. Yes, what a good idea. Let's get out of this stuffy old smial. A walk will do us all good.' Neither of us could say no to that.  
  
'And maybe Frodo will be here by the time we get back.' Pippin said hopefully. Bilbo just laughed and nodded. 


	4. The trials of crossing a field

A/N: Well, even though no one felt like reviewing my last chapter, I'm giving you another one, perhaps I'll get a couple then.  
  
We told Aunt Eglantine that we were going out for a walk. She looked worried about the lateness of the hour, but reasoned that we were with Bilbo. Of course, that would mean nothing if Pippin decided to run away, but I trusted that he wouldn't.  
  
Pippin was jumping up and down in excitement, again, as Bilbo got his thick woolly coat off the coat peg and put it on him. It was a little large for him, as it was a hand-me-down from one of his many cousins. No matter how rich or well bred you family is, you are always cursed by hand-me-downs. The vest I was wearing at the time happened to have once been my cousin Berilac's.  
  
Pippin squirmed and protested at wearing his coat, he didn't like the way the sleeves fell past his hands but we persuaded him by threatening him with his newly acquired hat. By the time we got out the door, Pippin's pockets were heavy with biscuits from diversions into the kitchen, and we had half an hour less before sun set.  
  
"I think I have space in my hood!" said Pippin as Bilbo pushed him firmly out the door.  
  
"No you have not!" said Bilbo, "Pockets are for holding things, hoods are for keeping your head warm!" Bilbo rethought his words, "And identifying dwarves." He added. Pippin looked up at him, completely mystified by his words. I smiled, Bilbo would have a good time telling Pippin all his tales, and it was something he really loved, especially when they had never been heard before.  
  
"Let's go across the field! I like the field."  
  
"But it's not your field and there's not a path across it. You know that Pippin!" I said, knowing full well that Pippin was forbidden to go across the field for he would be trespassing and he always got especially dirty whenever he did.  
  
"Well then, we can make a path across it!" Pippin stared in wonder at Bilbo. I could read his face easily, 'an adult who broke the rules!' It said. So we walked a little way down the road to a gap in the hedge and Bilbo readied himself to jump the ditch.  
  
"Wait!" called Pippin, "There's someone at the window!" We had often been caught jumping this ditch by someone at the window. Pippin and I waved innocently and Bilbo smiled disarmingly. The shadow moved away from the window and Pippin gave Bilbo a nudge. Bilbo jumped and cleared the ditch with plenty of room left to spare.  
  
"104 and still going strong!" I heard faintly from the other side of the ditch. Pippin held his arms up expectantly. We had done this often, I threw Pippin across because he couldn't make it himself and if he got a face-full of mud he was allowed to give me one. At least Bilbo was at the other side and so I didn't need to worry so much about getting a handful of mud in my mouth once I joined them.  
  
I picked Pippin up off the ground and swung him once. Twice, and let go. He went sailing through the air, landing squarely on Bilbo, knocking him down in the mud.  
  
"It's customary to tell your elderly relations when you are going to pelt him with the smaller relations you know!" Bilbo called to me.  
  
"Don't worry Bilbo, You can push him in the mud once he gets over here, it's our agreement." Pippin informed Bilbo. Turning against me already!  
  
"Yes Pippin, OUR agreement. It does not include certain complaining elderly relations who don't have the sense to catch the smaller relations!" I replied.  
  
I decided to take a standing jump, rather than my usual running jump. If my 'elderly relation' of 104 was able to make it across then I should have been perfectly able. Not true. I would have made it across, I really would have, had the grass not been wet from a light shower earlier on in the day. My feet went right from under me down into the ditch. The rest of me fell with a soft 'whump' and followed my feet in the downward direction. I finally came to a stop in the gooey muck that tends to accumulate at the bottom of ditches. I looked up and Pippin was bent double laughing at my predicament, Bilbo looked amused but slightly concerned as well.  
  
"Anything broken, bent or harmed? Any blood?" Bilbo called down between stifled giggles. I decided not to grace his question with an answer and went about pulling myself up using the grassy sides.  
  
I made it to the top and accepted Bilbo's hand up with a small, begrudging smile. I felt small tugs at the back of my trousers and found Pippin trying to dust me down, though not making any real difference to my overall appearance, which could only be described as caked in mud.  
  
"You've taken my job Merry!" Said Pippin in mock annoyance, "I'm the one who goes home and needs at least three baths before I'm clean." I clasped my hands together, as I didn't trust them not to push Pippin down into the ditch so we could have three baths together.  
  
"Yes, yes, yes." I said absentmindedly, "Where to now?" Pippin thought for a little while, using a mockery of his fathers well known stance, and finally he chose a direction and we wordlessly took it.  
  
Nothing much happened while we crossed the field, other than a pheasant suddenly leaping up and scaring the life and soul out of all three of us. We came finally to the far edge and the only thing between us and the road was the hedge. The ditch was thankfully shallow and didn't really deserve status as an obstacle. The hedge however looked nearly impassable. Unless of course you happened to be a four-year-old Took with an affinity for worming your way through hedges and brambles.  
  
Pippin was through in a second, using the path of a hare, and came out the other side with barely a twig in his hair. I walked up and down the hedge and soon found a small opening that I had been looking for. It wasn't really an opening as such, more of a place of less density in the branches. I managed to push my way through, despite Bilbo telling me I'd not make it. I was more ruffled than Pippin was, admittedly, but I was on the right side of the hedge, which was more than I could say for Bilbo.  
  
Bilbo paced up and down, looking for his own way through but finding none.  
  
"Perhaps I could climb over." He said, half to himself, half to us.  
  
"It'll be quite a job, it is a hedge of hawthorn." I said.  
  
"I can see quite clearly what it is, thank you master Brandybuck. But if I can climb mountains, I can climb this hedge!" Once again Pippin gave me a look that told me he didn't quite understand all that Bilbo had said, but soon looked back over to Bilbo when the trees began shaking, their leaves falling as though it were already Autumn.  
  
Bilbo was halfway up one side of the hedge and I could feel Pippin beside me shaking with suppressed laughter.  
  
"It's not quite that funny is it Pippin?" I asked him. He shook his head no, but pointed to the corner of the field where there was a perfectly good oak tree with low branches, almost perfect for climbing and here was Bilbo struggling to get over the bendy branches of the hawthorn. I could certainly see the funny side.  
  
There was a snap and a crash as the trees sprung back into place and left Bilbo sprawled on the floor, still on the wrong side. Little Pippin couldn't control himself any longer and let his laughter ring out loud. I saw no harm in joining in.  
  
"Confound it all!" Said Bilbo in frustration. "What is it that you two find so funny?" It took a little while before either of us could breathe enough to tell him. Once we did, he stared at us incredulously. "And you were intending on letting me prance about this hedge like a fool for how long?" Neither of us answered, we would have let it go on for as long as we could make it.  
  
Bilbo set off towards the tree and I followed, but was held back by a hand holding the seat of my trousers. I turned and found Pippin waiting expectantly for me to pick him up. I hoisted him up onto my shoulders where he would sit for hours while I walked. He would sit still. He'd once fallen off his father's shoulders and had only just been caught by his ankles. It had severely shaken him though and he was more cautious than most around heights, more cautious than most Tooks anyway.  
  
We strolled in a leisurely manner up to the tree and found Bilbo in trouble once again.  
  
"Trolls and goblins!" He shouted out to no one in particular. "Confound this tree!" The tree was a very old tree and about two yards up it branched off into five different parts. In the centre was quite plainly a small puddle, or indeed a large puddle.  
  
Bilbo flipped his feet over the edge and lowered himself down. From the knees down he was dripping with rotting leaves. He landed lightly on the floor, turned to us and gave us a look that told us to not mention a thing about mud or leaves lest he did something he regretted later.  
  
The way this walk was going, Pippin was going to be the only one not needing a bath. 


	5. Upon meeting Farmer Maggot

A/N: Here we are. Aren't snow days wonderful things? Gave me a chance to get working on my stories again. Yay!  
  
We walked together down the road in companionable silence. I could see that Bilbo and Pippin were getting along like a burning barn and I was happy. In this silence we walked for a while until we heard a cart clip clopping its way towards us.  
  
Around a bend in the road we saw the cart and it was piled high with something covered by a tarpaulin. This cart Pippin recognised as one that often got him food, which tended to get things remembered with Pippin.  
  
"Mister Maggot!" He called out into the falling darkness, "Hello Mr. Maggot!" The cart, which had been trotting up till now came to a fast walk and eventually to a halt where Bilbo, Pippin and I met it.  
  
"Well hello there Pippin, caught me making my deliveries you have. Good evening to you master Merry and to you too Mister Took." He said, referring to Bilbo.  
  
"Mister Took! I should certainly hope not! I may be half Took, but that's no reason to call me mister Took." Said Bilbo in mock outrage. Farmer Maggot took a closer look at Bilbo.  
  
"Why if it isn't Mister Bilbo Baggins of Bag-End! Haven't seen you around these parts for a long while!"  
  
"No, I'm afraid I've been away a bit longer than was good for me. What with the Proudfoots starting their new shop up and the blacksmiths changing hands and not to mention Frodo, I've had quite a time keeping everything in order!"  
  
"Frodo! How is he doing? I can't say I miss his pilfering self but I can't deny that I wonder what's happening with the boy."  
  
"He's calmed down since you last saw him no doubt, but your dogs still hold the same fear for him."  
  
"And so they should!" Maggot laughed a little, "They caught him a good few times, knocked him about a bit too I shouldn't wonder and that always led to the strapping he deserved." The conversation had floated far beyond Pippin's knowledge and he was becoming curious again.  
  
"Why did Frodo need strapping? Frodo never needs to be told off or anything!" he stated.  
  
"He's most certainly changed since I last saw him then." Said Maggot, "He used to be a right scoundrel, thieving from my fields left, right and centre. I would have put it down to starvation did I not know that he was living in Brandy Hall. He just kept coming back." Pippin looked slightly in awe of Frodo. He knew that Frodo had some wicked ideas sometimes, but he didn't know that he'd ever been as far as stealing. "Don't you get any ideas in your head young Pippin. I find you stealing from my land and I'll have no hesitation punishing you as I did Frodo." Said Maggot matter-of- factly.  
  
"Oh no Mister Maggot, of course not sir." Squeaked Pippin, his facial expression quickly becoming one of fear.  
  
"Good, we'll be friends for a good long time then." Said Maggot smiling again. "Now, so no thoughts of pinching anything from the back of my cart pops into your head, why don't you have a mushroom?" I could feel Pippin bouncing with glee atop my shoulders. Pippin would never need to steal from Farmer Maggot, he could probably just turn up on the doorstep one day and get a whole basket of mushrooms. I put Pippin on the cart next to Maggot, who reached under the tarpaulin and pulled out a huge puffball mushroom. Pippin's eyes widened hungrily as he took it in his small hands.  
  
"Thank you Mister Maggot!" Pippin cried as he hugged the mushroom to him. "Mummy will be able to make all sorts of things!"  
  
"Now, I must be getting on if I am to be able to deliver the rest of my crop to all the other mothers who have ravenous sons to feed." Pippin hopped off the cart and took my hand. We all wished Maggot a safe journey and Pippin thanked him a few more times.  
  
As the sounds of a trotting horse faded into the distance we continued on our way.  
  
"Can we go home now?" Said Pippin, nibbling on one of the biscuits he had borrowed from the kitchens. "I don't want to ruin the mushroom by falling on it or anything and Frodo might be there by now." Babbled Pippin, as he is wont to do.  
  
"Very well," sighed Bilbo, "But I don't believe we've been gone for more than half an hour." Bilbo was speaking the truth; it wasn't likely to be much more that half past four, despite the dimness of the sky. But I knew what Pippin could be like when he didn't get his way and I gave Bilbo a look that he shouldn't persue the subject any further as it was bound to end in angry words. On Pippin's behalf anyway.  
  
"Do we have to go back across that field?" asked Bilbo, slightly worried. Pippin giggled.  
  
"Oh no," he said, "There's a footpath just up here." 


	6. Took hunting

A/N: Has this taken me long enough or what? Well, hope everyone enjoys it.  
  
Bilbo grumbled for a while about struggling through a field when there was a path all along and what are paths for if not to be walked across. Neither Pip nor I thought we should remind him that I had been the one against going across the field and that he'd been all for it. I did, however, see fit to pester Bilbo the 'adventurer' on his apparent lack of cross-country skills.  
  
"So Bilbo," I said, "Did you complain this much when you were walking across Middle Earth? Because if you did, I'm quite surprised that the dwarves didn't dig a hole and throw you in it and leave you there." Bilbo appeared to think about it.  
  
"At first, perhaps." Pippin then stormed up to us, he looked quite annoyed with the two of us.  
  
"What are you two talking about?" He shouted at us, he seemed very frustrated. Bilbo looked at me with a small, slightly evil smile, inviting me to explain. I really didn't know where to start.  
  
"We're talking about Bilbo's adventure." I said lamely. To my surprise Pippin's annoyance vanished from his face.  
  
"The one where he killed that dragon?" He became rather excited, again. "Is it? Did you really Bilbo?" Bilbo looked a little embarrassed, very possibly a first.  
  
"Well, I wouldn't say I killed the dragon." Pippin's face dropped perceptively, Bilbo continued quickly, anxious not to lose his audience. "But I did talk with him!" Pippin looked interested again. He picked up a stick and began swinging it like a sword.  
  
"Did you wave your sword at him? Was he afraid of you?"  
  
"I wouldn't say afraid was the right word. I, however, was terrified." Pippin paused and upon thought he seemed to reason that being scared of a dragon was quite a fair thing to be scared of. Better than being scared of worms anyway. "I have scars you know." I glanced at Bilbo, he was proud of his scars, even if they were collected while he was running away.  
  
"Where?" Said Pippin, bouncing all around, "I don't see any!" Bilbo stopped walking and pulled up one of his trouser legs. He showed the back of his leg to Pippin. There was much less hair there and Pippin touched it tentatively. "Does it hurt?"  
  
"Oh goodness no! It's been that way for years. Dragon burns they are." Pippin's eyes widened but Bilbo dropped his trouser leg down again, Pippin made no protest because we were able to start walking again.  
  
"Do you have a sword?" asked Pippin, swinging his stick again.  
  
"Oh yes, a very fine and well made one. Elven, glows blue when near orcs and goblins."  
  
"Merry, do you think mummy would ever let me get a sword?" I suppressed a laugh.  
  
"Yes Pippin, when trees walk." Pippin scowled at me and 'playfully' jabbed in the stomach with his stick, perhaps harder than he usually would. Pippin soon became bored of his stick and he threw it back into the bushes.  
  
Then, for no visible reason, Pippin sprinted off. He stumbled here and there on the uneven ground and even slipped over but he didn't stop running, it was as though he was being chased. Bilbo and I looked at each other, I shrugged and rushed after Pippin. We were faster than he was but he got onto the road. I panicked, he was out of sight and could go anywhere. I burst forth onto the road and looked everywhere wildly, I couldn't see him anywhere. Bilbo and I stared uncertainly in the two directions of the road, neither of us had seen which way he had turned.  
  
"Blast his Tookish side! He'll be nothing but trouble when he grows up!" said Bilbo, I cocked an eyebrow at him, he already was nothing but trouble! "Right, you go that way," he pointed towards the Smial "And I'll go this way." He turned down the other way and began yelling Pippin's name. I did the same but rather half-heartedly, if he didn't want to be found, yelling his name wouldn't help. I looked under all the bushes, checked all the long grass, looked up in the trees, and down deserted foxholes. But I reached the Smial before I found Pippin. I couldn't go in there without bringing Pippin back, what if Bilbo didn't find him either? I turned back around, panic rising in him again, how I hated Pippin at that moment in time.  
  
I checked and rechecked everywhere I could conceive that it was possible for a four-year-old to hide, and there are a lot of places four-year-olds can hide. I was beginning to become frantic, searching, rushing all over the road, in the ditches, in the adjacent fields, everywhere.  
  
"Pippin where are you?" I yelled into the night. I heard a quiet giggle coming from a little further down the road. I was now fuming and I stormed around the corner to find Bilbo striding towards me, his face as care-worn as mine, and Pippin sitting calmly on his shoulders. Pippin abruptly stopped giggling and I saw that he'd been crying. Bilbo has never told me off but it certainly seemed as though that was what had happened. We both began walking back to the Smial, my heart was yet to slow down and I found tears in my eyes that I wiped away.  
  
"You two are very good hunters, you found me far quicker than Pearl or Mummy did." I looked up at Pippin in complete astonishment.  
  
"Just make sure that you never do that to us again!" I reached up and grabbed his hand, the physical contact calmed me more, I hadn't gone mad with worry, he was actually next to me on Bilbo's shoulders.  
  
"I promise I won't." and he looked down at me so solemnly that I had to believe him. I let go of a breath I didn't realise I'd been holding and a grin of relief broke through on my face. I glanced at Bilbo and saw that he'd done the same. 


End file.
